Funding Initiatives

While many organizations are scaling down in the face of unprecedented challenges, Cancer Commons is expanding our scope of work through ambitious, strategic collaborations. Special initiatives with organizations and experts at the forefront of their specialties will accelerate knowledge acquisition and generate clinically actionable insights to help patients obtain the best possible outcomes.

Brain Cancer Commons Collaboration

Under the direction of Eric T. Wong, MD, Cancer Commons’ Medical Director for Brain Cancer, this collaboration between Cancer Commons and the Musella Foundation for Brain Tumor Research provides patients with advanced brain cancer who have exhausted standard therapies with information related to personalized treatment options. This collaboration provides treatment navigation services, research of personalized treatment options, and virtual tumor board services to give patients a comprehensive plan that includes best treatment options, access to those treatments, and monitoring over time.

Ovarian Cancer Commons Collaboration

In partnership with Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, DPhil (Columbia University), our technology partner xCures, and SEngine Precision Medicine, Cancer Commons is launching a perpetual clinical trial in ovarian cancer in which each patient is treated with a customized multi-drug regimen. Each woman’s treatment is planned by a virtual tumor board and is based on deep molecular profiling, organoid drug screens, and real-time results from other patients. Individualized treatment plans are coordinated across all patients to rapidly replicate successes and prioritize development of the most promising drugs.

Pancreatic Cancer Perpetual Trial

In collaboration with the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN) and Let’s Win! Pancreatic Cancer, Cancer Commons is initiating a pancreatic cancer perpetual clinical trial that complements the traditional clinical trial system by tightly integrating clinical research and clinical care to continuously learn from pancreatic cancer patients across the spectrum of novel treatments. Expert virtual tumor boards will collectively research the best treatment options for each patient, based on deep molecular profiling, high-throughput drug screens, and real-time results from other patients.

Pediatric Cancer Commons Consortium

In consortium with Stanford University, our technology partner xCures, and the Pediatric Oncology Experimental Therapeutics Investigators’ Consortium (POETIC), Cancer Commons is working to reinvent pediatric oncology clinical trials for the era of precision medicine, creating an open alternative for pediatric drug development that puts patients first. A perpetual clinical trial enables physicians to make better treatment decisions, helps pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies slash the time and cost of developing drugs, allows academic researchers to rapidly test their clinical hypotheses, and most importantly, leads to superior outcomes for relapsed infant and pediatric acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), sarcoma, and brain tumor patients.

All Advanced Cancers

In order to reach and provide potentially life-extending help to more patients with the most dire diagnoses across all cancer types, Cancer Commons works in partnership with the American Cancer Society (ACS), the largest voluntary health organization in the world. ACS refers to Cancer Commons: any patient with an imminently lethal cancer diagnosis who is seeking options, any patient with a diagnosis of pancreatic ductal carcinoma or glioma (any stage), and any patient with a “rare” cancer—a cancer type representing less than 5% of total cases.

Join or Start an Initiative

These initiatives will give cancer patients their best chance to access investigational studies during the current public health crisis and beyond. Join or start an initiative:

Contact Shan Fowler

Cancer Commons Tax Identification Number: 45-3266802